Reviews
Publishers Weekly
“The husband-and-wife team behind Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature (2010) demystify the concept of fractals, which mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot used to help understand complicated shapes in nature…. This fascinating exploration should awaken readers’ powers of observation and appreciation for the intricacies of nature.”
Boston Globe
“In Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature, Sarah C. Campbell, aided by photographs she and her husband, Richard P. Campbell took, explains what does (lightning) and doesn’t (a swallowtail caterpillar’s markings) constitute a fractal. She delivers a tidy education, gives a nod to the use of fractals in the built world, and offers the hope that readers will invent new uses.”
Horn Book
“Bring up the math term fractals in a roomful of adults, and it’s likely quite a few eyes will glaze over. Yet wife-and-husband team Sarah and Richard Campbell succeeds in making fractals accessible and engaging to—get this—the elementary-school crowd. Sarah Campbell’s writing is clear, fluid, and concise, effortlessly so. … Glossy, well-designed pages feature crisp, up-close photographs, which pair perfectly with the text—making this the go-to choice for introducing fractals to children (and grownups).”
School Library Journal
“Using clear text and outstanding color photographs, Campbell explores the concept of these unusual shapes. Beginning with circles, cones, and cylinders, she leads readers carefully and concisely through examples of fractals such as trees, rivers, mountains, broccoli, lightning, and lungs. The photographs, sometimes highlighting the ever-smaller pieces of a vegetable fractal against a black background, sometimes drawing back to give a aerial view of a geological feature, are crisp and precise and underscore the clear text.”